Leah Devlin is the author of two fast-paced murder mystery series set in along the eastern seaboard in Cape Cod and Woods Hole. The Woods Hole Mysteries include "The Bottom Dwellers," "AEgir's Curse," and "The Bends." The Chesapeake Tug Boat Murders includes, "Vital Spark, "Spider Bite" and "Chrome Diva."

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Spider. When Pamela Dodd arrives in the sleepy Chesapeake village of River Glen to hunt for treasure, she unleashes a summer of chaos and murder. The wake from her speeding motor yacht erodes a cliff, causing an abandoned cottage to topple off the edge--and revealing a mass grave under its foundation. The discovery sends River Glen into a panic. Was Henry Herssen, the reclusive fisherman who owned the cottage, responsible for the killings, or has someone else been burying bodies at the top of the cliff for decades? As Detective Jay Braden and his assistant Will Wilkins investigate the murder site, the clues point to Tolchester College, a small school with secrets of its own. Braden discovers a discarded animal canister with a desiccated spider in a nearby shed. Will stumbles into a hidden pit containing a chair with restraints. It seems one of the professors has been conducting experiments using poisonous Australian funnel spiders. And their version of the scientific method is deadly.

When Henry Hersson’s abandoned cottage topples off a cliff’s edge into the river below, a mass grave is discovered under its foundation. The news of the human remains sends the sleepy village of River Glen into a panic. Was the strange old fisherman Hersson responsible for the killings, or has someone else, a local been burying bodies at the cliff top for over three decades? As Detective Jay Braden and his team investigate, all clues lead to Tolchester College, a lovely little school on the outskirts of River Glen. But is it really so lovely? The college administrators thwart Braden’s every attempt to investigate, and one of the professors has been conducting experiments … using poisonous Australian funnel spiders. And their Scientific Method is lethal. Spider; forthcoming in 2017.

I have my quirks like anyone, and one is my obsession for a spider-free boat. Every time I pull into the marina, I grab a broom from my van and head down the dock, ready for battle. My strategy of attack is always the same. First I swish the webs off the railings and boat lines, and then swat the spiders and their nests (they were busy procreating on my boat in my absence) off the canvas covering my deck. Occasionally a spider attempts a runner … a desperate escape across my deck, but “oh no you don’t” … “no escape for you” … stomp … death by sandal. While underway, I’ll be living on my boat for days, usually wearing only a bathing suit. The last thing I need is a spider bite. No thank you to a giant, oozing, itching welt. Yes, definitely … swish, swat, stomp. Sayonara.

"Write what you know," they say. That’s true for me anyway. I teach neuroscience to pre-meds and one of my favorite topics is neuropharmacology, the action of drugs, toxins and venoms, like from poisonous spiders. This and all my boat spiders gave me the idea for Spider. In the opening scene, Alex Allaway and a new character, Nina Vega, Alex’s roommate from undergraduate days, are boating on the ever-faithful tugboat, the Vital Spark. Broom in hand, Alex wages war with the spiders. Swish, swat, stomp. That task done, it’s party time! Boat drinks … Hurricanes! Steaming crabs in Old Bay seasoning! It’s a happy reunion for the former roommates. Nina has just moved to River Glen to take a job at the local Tolchester College.

The upper Chesapeake Bay and its rivers are lined with silty red cliffs, and one day I spotted a cottage poised precariously on the edge. A cliff seemed a perfect backdrop for Alex and Nina’s picnic on the water. Above them on the cliff’s edge looms Henry Herrson’s abandoned cottage. “The place is haunted,” Alex tells Nina. “Herssen … long gone … up and disappeared years ago.”

Then they hear it … roaring down the river, heading straight for them … that goddamn motor yacht … owned by that pompous treasure hunter from Miami … who searches River Glen every summer for Giles Blood-hand’s lost treasure … that rich bitch is going to swamp the Vital Spark!

The giant wake collides with the tugboat and washes away the base of the cliff. Herssen’s cottage crashes to the beach below.

Whoa … what the hell is that? No way! Those are bones! Human bones … so many of them! … poke from the cliff.

Detective Jay Braden and forensics expert, Dr. Zera Lim, rush to investigate the mass grave. Plastic storage containers are discovered in Herssen’s tool shed. Hmm. There’s a dried-out spider in one of them. A gruesome-looking thing. Its fangs are frighteningly large. Faint writing is on one of the containers. Braden Googles the name. Odd. It belongs to a professor at Tolchester College.

About the Author

Leah Devlin is a mystery writer and marine biologist who grew up in the Washington DC area... Read more >>>

The Chesapeake Tugboat Murders

Welcome to a new series,The Chesapeake Tugboat Murders. Find here a listing for the books, updates, photos, character profiles, and short essays about the series.